Political Parties: Finance

John McDonnell: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what the document retention policy of the Commission is regarding original donation returns; what that policy was before 2004; and whether the Commission has destroyed any such returns.

Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that it retains all documents which it considers to be required for its current or future business needs. In July 2005 the Commission ordered the destruction of original hard copy donation returns from political parties from 2001 to 2003. The Commission does not plan to destroy any other donation returns in the future. The Commission has retained all original hard copy donation returns from political parties from 2004 onwards and original hard copies of donation returns from regulated donees from 2001 onwards.
	Information on donation returns since 2001 is published on the Commission's register of donations, which is available on its website at
	http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/regulatory-issues/registers.cfm.